I have a client that needs to keep accurate records of billable time spent working for clients across a group of 5 employees.

There is plenty of software out there that can do this but most of it seems ridiculously expensive or too complex.

All that is needed is a timer application on each desktop where staff can click start and stop for a particular client thus recording periods of work. This information needs to be automatically collated into a report over a chosen period so that all work done for a client during a period is brought together and the time totalled.

Anyone know of something simple and cheap to achieve this?

Preferences:

Local install - not cloud based (pref working across a workgroup based network).

If it is a commercial app preferably a one off payment rather than a subscription based model.

Must be Windows 7 x64 compatible.

TIA

By the way I have looked at Toggl which seems to do everything that is required and is free but to work with more than 5 people cost $5 per user per month which soon adds up.

It isn't clear to me either how you would set up a client list which is accessible to the whole group rather than having to enter the details for each person.

There is also the issue that it is entirely cloud based though CSV and PDF reports can be generated.

I think the AbstractSpoon ToDoList would be able to do this. You might want to limit how much was visible if you want it to look simple, and you might have to tweak a report, but can do what you describe. The only issue might be everyone working at once using the same database over the network; I don't know if that can be done, and I'm not in a position to test it atm - would not be difficult to add them altogether at the end of a month, though, if everyone just used their own database. And, of course, it is free - though donations are accepted.